"Their ear-piercingly loud surroundings fell silent as the archer's head spun and the couple was enveloped in their self-made serenity." Near-death experiences can lead to some pretty interesting things. Two-Shot. Spitfire/WallArt. T for language. R&R.

Author's Note:Yep. I'm a Spitfire/WallArt shipper. I'm too obsessed with this shownot to write fanfiction about it. Anyways, I have no idea where this came from. It just kind of found itself in my Moleskine and I felt the need to type it up and post it. Well, enjoy! And please review. There will be a Part Two to this story, so make sure to look for the next addition. Thanks!

I'm really sorry if the characters aren't exactly themselves. Given the circumstances of the story, I think they still retain their personalities. This is my first Young Justice fanfiction, so consider this a test run.

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice. If I did, WallArt would be a thing by now. And this show would not be made for children.

…

The explosion had been larger than any member of the team had anticipated.

What had begun as a simple covert mission to investigate the possible new headquarters of Venom manufacturers, a shady warehouse in the middle of nowhere in Canada, had taken a turn for the worst after Superboy's sensitive hearing picked up the sound of an explosive, ticking and ready to detonate. The clone stopped in his tracks, rigid, at the familiar rhythm of the weapon. Miss Martian, reading his mind, bellowed a warning before her voice was drowned out by a fiery eruption that engulfed the dark building in flames.

The team had scrambled for the exits memorized from the intricate blueprints of their destination provided by Batman before their mission, but to little avail. Only Miss Martian and Robin had successfully made it out of the warehouse before the explosive detonated and the structure caught fire. Miss Martian released a strangled scream and began flying back towards the blaze just as a large piece of debris that had blocked the North Entrance was sent flying away and a battered and ash-covered Superboy emerged; Aqualad, unconscious, slung over his shoulder.

She paused and fell to the ground on shaky legs before running to Superboy and throwing her arms around his neck, a slightly awkward action considering Aqualad's position on her boyfriend's back. Neither said a word as he returned her embrace, and ensconced her with thick and wobbly arms. They then broke apart, and Miss Martian began inspecting Aqualad's condition, murmuring quietly to him and gently prodding at the boy. Besides the injuries he had sustained from the intense heat inside, it had appeared that he had also been struck on the head. A nasty welt on his scalp only confirmed this.

"Did you see Kid Flash or Artemis?" Robin called to Superboy over the crackling of flames behind the heroes.

"I had seen Artemis head towards the East Exit before the explosion," Superboy gasped out, voice weak from smoke inhalation. "But I saw no sign of Kid. I thought he was next to Aqualad by the West Exit, but when I saved him, KF was nowhere to be seen." With that, Superboy placed their leader down next to Miss Martian beneath a tree before collapsing on the other side of the girl.

"What should we do? Either of them could very well be out by now, and going back in there could be a huge risk," Miss Martian addressed to Robin. The Boy Wonder's eyes narrowed in thought behind his mask.

"Miss M," he turned to his teammate. "Survey the area for any sign of KF or Artemis. If the two aren't out yet, we'll wait a bit and then try to search for them again." Robin turned back to the warehouse as Miss Martian took to the sky. "I'm already down two teammates. I can't afford to lose any more."

The next few moments passed slowly and consisted of Superboy's uneven breathing, Aqualad's sleep-induced silence, and Robin's furious attempts to contact the speedster and his arching counterpart through the team's communicators. Miss Martian's voice suddenly infiltrated the temporary leader's mind.

"I've been trying to get a hold of Artemis and Kid telepathically and have had no luck. But I just flew over the East Wing and received a very faint signal from Artemis." She paused. "She's weak, but she's alive!" Her voice rose with joy at the prospect that her friend was still among the living, and Robin sighed with relief.

"And Kid?" His voice was hopeful.

She hesitated before responding. "…I still don't have a reading from him."

Robin closed his eyes tightly. "The building could collapse soon, and right now it would be way too risky to send someone in there after them." He glanced at Aqualad and Superboy, unconscious and breathing heavily. "Especially in our current condition. Is there any way that you can contact Artemis? Maybe direct her to the nearest exit?"

The heroine bit her lip. "The current mental connection I share with her is extremely weak at the moment. I can sense her presence on my signal, but can't exactly access her mind."

"So what the hell are we supposed to do? Sit around and wait until Artemis' signal dies out?" Superboy cut in angrily. "We don't even know if Kid is alive. But if he dies it won't be because we didn't do anything to help him! Either of them!" He sat up to re-enter the fray, but was stopped by a now-awake Aqualad.

"Superboy, wait. You may be extremely strong, but we still don't know the extent of your powers. If that building collapses while you're in it, you could be seriously injured. Plus, re-entering the building could destabilize it and cause it to come down even faster. And by the sound of it, you seem to have inhaled a large quantity of smoke. It would not be smart to attempt saving your teammates, no matter how honorable the thought is."

Before Superboy could respond, the incomplete team was joined by Miss Martian. "Aqualad's right. We're all concerned over Kid Flash and Artemis' safety, but we also need to cautious of our own." She smiled sadly at the clone before her features turned grim once more. "At this point, all we can do is wait and hope that those two make it out all right." Aqualad nodded and Robin mumbled in reluctant agreement while Superboy stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest and turned back to the fiery scene before them.

"I will kill that idiot if he lets him and Artemis die in there," Robin grumbled in a frustrated tone.

And with that, the team waited.

…

When Artemis finally came around from her half-conscious, explosion-induced state, she almost wished she hadn't. Her entire body ached, and as she took in a deep smoke-filled breath, realized that half of her ribs must have been broken. Awkwardly, the blonde attempted to roll over, looking for her bow, and collapsed under her weight; limbs screaming in protest. A pitiful whimper escaped her lips as her head pounded, and Artemis fell back to the floor on her side, spotting her bow several feet away.

Lying even further was a crumpled pile of red and yellow that the archer realized could only be Kid Flash. Artemis gasped, and was reminded of her broken ribs by a sharp jab above her abdomen, before she began slowly dragging herself to his form. The task took what felt like hours, tedious and painful. As she inched forward, panting shakily, a large portion of the roof fell to her right. She rolled away, surprised, and immediately regretted it as her ribs cracked, head ached, and muscles burned.

The warehouse was collapsing.

Internally panicking, Artemis crawled faster towards Kid Flash, clenching her teeth and ignoring the searing pain festering in and over her body. Momentary relief flooded over her as she came to the speedster's side. But as the building cracked loudly above her head, the sentiment was washed away.

Artemis groaned and raised herself into a half-sitting position above her teammate. Though unconscious, he seemed to be in better shape than the heroine, with no external injuries besides several cuts dotting his boyish features and a series of larger gashes on his chest and limbs. She carefully turned his face to hers (cautious in case he had obtained a neck injury) and began patting his cheek gently.

"Kid. Kid, wake up." Her voice came out in a raspy whisper, and she turned her head to cough heavily into her shoulder. When her respiratory fit subsided, she lowered herself onto her elbow, no longer able to hold herself up so broadly. "Please, KF," Artemis pleaded. Part of her was glad that her teammate and nuisance was unable to hear how desperate she sounded, while the other wished he would just wake the hell up. She realized then that her cheeks were damp. Whether they were glossed with tears, sweat, or blood, Artemis wasn't sure.

Under any other circumstances, the archer would have been flustered at their proximity. Propped on her elbow, her face was only inches from his. But rather than laying in the quiet meadow the team sometimes played ultimate Frisbee in near base between missions near base, or the shore of the beach beside Mount Justice, their bodies were broken and sprawled over the hard concrete of a sketchy warehouse, about to fall at any moment. And instead of Artemis' cheeks burning with an embarrassed blush, her entire body felt as if it was roasting from the flames that surrounded them. Disbelievingly, she decided she'd rather be stuck in a romantic situation with Kid Mouth than suffering from her current misfortune.

In one last attempt to awaken Kid Flash, she rested her palm against the side of his face, and brushed his cheek with her thumb, leaving an ashy smudge beneath his cracked goggles. "Wally."

Then Artemis laid her head on his chest, attempting to blink the blurriness in her eyes away before finally settling on closing them. At least she wasn't going to die alone. It was a selfish thought, she knew, but Artemis was scared. She was afraid of dying. She was afraid of leaving behind the people she loved, however few they were. She was afraid of leaving Earth, only to be greeted by the fiery gates of hell for all of her past misdeeds. She was bat-shit terrified.

And although he wasn't awake to comfort her with pretty words of reassurance and false hope, Artemis was glad that Wally was present.

Another portion of the roof fell some feet away from the couple, and Artemis squeezed her eyes shut tightly, and burrowed her pounding head into Wally's neck.

'Fuck. This is it. This is the fucking end. No going out in a blaze of glory, dying to save thousands, defeating the enemy in the end. No. Instead I'm going to be crushed to death by a sketchy warehouse.' The glum and bitter realization may as well of kicked her in her broken ribs. 'Hell, I hope Batman doesn't give Mom the news. He can be a bit of a prick when it comes to touchy stuff. Black Canary or Green Arrow should tell her. Maybe together. Yeah that'd work. Shit! Who's going to help Mom get over the ledge where the sidewalk and the wheelchair ramp to our building meet? Damn, and Dad will know that she's on her own…who knows what that bastard will do to her. At least Wally won't have this problem. His family must be relatively normal. And – Oh shit, his family. His fucking family. His parents are going to be heartbroken. And Robin will be – the team! Oh fuck, the team, the team, the team! They got out okay, right? I mean they had to have. Over half of them have powers and Robin is, well, Robin is Robin. …They won't be a team anymore. Not without me and, admittedly, Kid. Who's going to teach M'gann how to cook a traditional Vietnamese meal, and tell Conner what flowers to get her? And play chess with Kaldur, and pull Black Ops all-nighters with Rob after his best friend dies? Kal can't play to save his life, literally, and Con will just end up breaking the X-Box, and M'gann will –'

Suddenly, Artemis' worried thoughts were interrupted by what felt like a hand, resting firmly on the back of her neck, gently toying with the elastic holding her blood and sweat-matted locks in a firm ponytail. She jerked her head up – a bit too quickly, she realized as her vision became dizzy – and was greeted by Wally's bright green eyes and a tired smile.

"Hey, Beautiful." He smirked. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" She released a breathy and relieved laugh before mustering up whatever strength she had left and slapping his arm. "Ouch! Even critically wounded you pack a punch," he muttered, rubbing his bruised appendage as Artemis slithered off him and onto the floor beside the boy, cringing at its warmth.

She felt his fingers weave around hers, familiar and reminiscent of the time they'd spent in Bialya, before he hoisted himself above her, reversing their roles. Artemis blinked rapidly, unsure if this was still reality or if she had died and God had been merciful, and granted her a kind afterlife. "Wha-what…what are you doing?" She whispered shakily.

Wally's smirk only broadened as he leaned in closer to the girl. "Getting us out of here," he replied cockily. "Unless you'd like to stick around." She attempted to raise her hand to hit him once more but let it fell back to her side at his next statement. "But just in case; I'm not dying with any regrets."

True to his nature, his lips met hers so quickly; Artemis' foggy mind became even more disoriented. Their ear-piercingly loud surroundings fell silent as the archer's head spun and the couple was enveloped in their self-made serenity. The warehouse and the fire within it fell away, and Wally and Artemis basked in the glory of the few moments of relief they had experienced the entire evening.

As quickly as the kiss was initiated, it was over. Artemis was greeted by Wally's cheeky grin once more as he hovered above her. More light-headed and breathless than before, she blinked and her pain-dusted features contorted with confusion.

"And if we make it out?" Her voice feebly questioned. She thought she felt him chuckle silently, shaking gently above her.

"Then I'll blame this whole series of events on your explosion-induced dementia, and probably tease you for dreaming about me during so," he replied matter-of-factly and began to pull himself onto his feet.

Artemis closed her eyes, as a small smile formed on her lips. "Just shut up and run us out of here, Baywatch." In one fluid movement, the speedster scooped his battered companion into his arms, where she nestled against his chest quite comfortably, and turned to the exit they had failed to get to earlier.

"Cuddling?" He teased as he adjusted her in his arms, resting her head in the crook of his neck for the second time that night.

"Hey, dementia, remember?" Her sleepy voice responded, a smile evident in her tone.

Wally positioned himself in his familiar running stance, and took off as the roof crumbled and his mind raced as fast as his feet.

…

Author's Note:A lot of love and work went into this. I hope the characters were themselves and you found this worthy of your time! Please remember to review and don't forget to look for Part Two of this story. There shall be resolution.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.